Bullaun stone

The National Monuments Service's description

Excavations in 2000 under licence no. 00E0545 was summarised by Laurence Dunne as follows; 'The site is located north of Blennerville to the south-west of Tralee town. Field-walking as part of an archaeological assessment of the proposed development site, comprising 24 acres, identified a possible circular stone enclosure and a separate stone basin/bullaun stone. Two intersecting test-trenches were excavated running through the possible enclosure. Trench 1 measured 45m north–south. Nothing of archaeological significance was discovered in this trench.
Trench 2 measured 45m east–west. In the interior/centre of the stone setting in the western side of the trench, there were several large depressions, c. 1m deep, in the bedrock; these appeared to have been the result of quarrying. They had been backfilled and levelled with soil and dumps of builder’s rubble, burnt rubbish and an estuarine-type silt material.
Both trenches showed that there was no formal arrangement to the stones. No foundation trench was present, nor were there any external or internal ditches. Sherds of 19th- and 20th-century pottery were encountered in the topsoil immediately above the stones, but no finds were encountered within the circular delineation of stone.
In conclusion, nothing was discovered to date the subcircular arrangement of stones. What it represents is not clear. It may be the remains of quarried limestone material. It seems that bedrock was extensively quarried in this general area as a ready resource to construct the nearby canal. The practice of accessing this resource of stone, in a low-key fashion, was continued up until the recent past. Each time, the soil overlying the bedrock was excavated and the depression created in the bedrock was then backfilled. The presence of burnt plastic, rubbish and modern ceramics in the western trench indicates that at least some of this activity was 20th-century in date.
The stray find of a bullaun stone is interesting but in no way reflects the context of excavation as undertaken here. It is not possible to place this artefact with any certainty in any specific archaeological period; however, it would be prudent that the stone basin/bullaun stone be regarded as an indicator of settlement in the area. Its exact provenance could not be ascertained owing to the mobility of such an object. Consequently, the feature identified as an enclosure at the pre-excavation stage is clearly non-archaeological' (www.excavations.ie 2000:0453). The precise location of this bullaun stone could not be determined as the national grid reference (Q8150 1340) given in the published reference is insufficient.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 20 June 2022

References

Dunne, L. 2002 Lohercannan, Tralee. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2000: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 152-3.